Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1887-03-28

his face, moving slowly down Broadway on
crutches. Nobody knew him, yet he had
| been a senator only few years before, and
| was thought one of the ablest lawyers in
| that body. He was Senator Wright of
| Iowa. A man of the type of the western
circuit rider of 70 years ago has been sitting
| on the bench of one of the courts in Wash
ington for some years. You will see him
sometimes on the avenue strolling along.
The great throng of politicians pass him by,
and not one in a hundred know who he is.
Yet he was a Republican senator of influence
during part of Grants administration, and
once controlled the great patronage of the in
terror department. His name ir James Har
Ian, and we have heard some of the younger
generation of politicians ask who he was, and
what he had been.
During the and for few years sue
ceeding there was no brighter name in the
Republican galaxy than that of John A.
Bingham, and yet two or three years ago the
chairman of one of the Hodse committees
confessed that he had never heard of him.
or if he had, had forgotten it. When Bing-
ham returned from Japan and went to Wash
1ngton ne seemed more of stranger, so he
asserted, than when he first came to take his
seat. And yet we we'll remember this mans
splendid eloquence in behalf of Republican
measures, as he was acknowledged one of the
half-dozen best orators in the House. On
his return from Japan he went back to the
business which he had given up twenty-five
years before to enter political life; he praa-
tlced law in a small way
In the pslmy days of the Republican party
there was no more vigorous, energetic leader
than Samuel Shellabarger, a member of Con-
gress from Ohio. He was acute, aggressive
and an intense partisan. Shellabarger was
one of the chiefs of the House. You will
see now an energetic old man with long
white tuft on his chin, skin as sallow as a
Turks, shoulders somewhat bent practicing
law before the courts and departments of
Washington. Politicians have forgotten
him. Mr. Shellabarger has forgotten and re-
nonnced politics and politicians forever.
When General Garfield began his admin
istration there used to appear in the depart
ments man who always had the appearance
of Sinking in and Sinking out He moved
about with shuffiing gate His head was
bowed and his eyes were ON the sidewalk
He came and went from an inconspicuous OF
fee on New York avenue, and his visitors
there were infrequent. From the window of
his Office he could look out upon the building
where but few years before he had been su-
preme in the administration of the depart
ment OF justice. And he had been a senator
also. But at this time he seemed almost un-
known, and it was no wonder that Landaulet
Williams sickened of it all and returned to
his home in Oregon. There too are McGow-
an and J. Amber Smith, and Jerry Wilson
and Tyner, and Scofield and others, now SO
that their names cannot be re-
called on the moment, who once were of
power and rank in the party, and are forgot
ten by politicians of the past, unknown to
those of the present.
But there is one politician of the past who, |
though no longer in politics, is not forgotten |
nor unknown. In striking contrast to the |
majority of those with whom he was SO long |
and intimately associated, General Buffers |
repute increases. When he enters the House |
he always faces informal reception, and
when he enters the Senate there are few who |
do not take his hand. Yet he has been out
of Congress almost ten years. There is an
other politician of those past days who seems
to illustrate the truth that in politics even |
there is survival of the ittest; and it is the |
greatest proof of the strength of Mr.. Blaine |
that, although he has been shorn of political |
power for six years, he seems to gain strength |
as the years glide on.